WALLACE, a
surname, the most illustrious in the annals of Scotland, originally
variously written Walence or Waleys. The progenitor of all the families
of the name of Wallace in this country is said to have been Eimerus
Galeius, so called on account of his having been, according to Sir James
Dalrymple, a native of Wales. Those of this name are, however, of
Anglo-Norman extraction. Eimerus, a witness of the foundation charter of
the abbacy of Kelso by David I. about 1128, is supposed to have been the
father of Richard Walense, who obtained from the high-steward of
Scotland a considerable portion of the district of Kyle in Ayrshire, and
was one of the witnesses to the charter of the Abbey of Paisley, founded
in 1160 by Walter the high-steward. His lands in Ayrshire he named
Richardton after himself, now Riccarton, the name of a village and
parish in that county. He was the most powerful vassal of the Stewarts
in Kyle. His elder son, also named Richard, was contemporary with Alan,
the high-steward, who died about 1204. This second Richard was the first
who spelled his name Walays, and on his death, his younger brother,
Henry Walays, succeeded to the family estates. Early in the 13th century
Henry acquired some lands under the Stewarts in Renfrewshire. These
lands were inherited by Adam Walays, said to have been living in 1259.
This Adam Walays had two sons, namely, Adam, who succeeded to the
Ayrshire estate of Riccarton, and Sir Malcolm, who received the lands of
Elderslie and Auchinbothie in Renfrewshire, and was the father of
Scotland~ez_rsquo~s great hero, Sir William Wallace.

Sir Malcolm married
Margaret, or Jean, daughter of Sir Raynauld, or Sir Hugh Crawford of
Loundoun, sheriff of Ayr. Some writers assert that by a previous
marriage he had two daughters one of whom was married to a Thomas
Halliday of Annandale, while others maintain that he had only two sons.
Malcolm; or, according to Fordoun, Andrew; and William, the former by
the first marriage, and the latter by the daughter of Sir Raynauld
Crawford. The elder son appears to have succeeded to his father~ez_rsquo~s
estates. He is said to have fallen in a skirmish with the English. In
1291, when Edward I. of England issued an order for the barons of
Scotland to swear fealty to him, the family of Elderslie absolutely
refused to take an oath so subversive of the independence of their
country. With his elder son, Sir Malcolm took refuge in the fastnesses
of the Lennox, while the younger son, William, retired with his mother
to the Carse of Gowrie, to seek the protection of a powerful relative at
Kilspindlie. Thence he was sent to receive his education at the seminary
attached to the cathedral of Dundee.

A note to the account of
the Elderslie family in Carrick~ez_rsquo~s ~ez_lsquo~Life of Sir William Wallace,~ez_rsquo~ states,
that a family of the name of Waleis existed in England, some of whom
appear to have attained the highest civic honours in the city of London.
It continues: ~ez_ldquo~We are informed by Stowe, that in 1299, when part of the
palace of Westminster, and the public buildings of the adjoining
monastery, were destroyed by fire, a parliament was held by Edward in
the house of Henry Waleis, mayor of London, at Stebenheth. Henry Waleis
was also mayor in 1300, and a person of the same name is mentioned as
having contributed largely to the building of ~ez_lsquo~St. Martyn~ez_rsquo~s church, in
the vicinity of London;~ez_rsquo~ he is also said to have filled the office of
mayor, during which time he built a prison, called the Tun, in Cornhill,
for night-walkers. In 1296, when Edward granted the citizens of London
the right of electing their chief magistrate, one William Waleis was
called by the public voice to the civic chair.~ez_rdquo~

_____

The Wallaces of Craigie,
Ayrshire, are descended from Sir Richard Wallace of Riccarton, uncle of
the celebrated Sir William Wallace. Sir Richard~ez_rsquo~s grandson, John Wallace
of Riccarton, married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir John Lindsay
of Craigie, whose arms were quartered with his own. His son, Adam
Wallace, was designed of Craigie, and from him lineally descend Hugh
Wallace, Esq. of Craigie, who in 1669 was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia, with remainder to his heirs general. Sir Hugh married Esther
Kerr, daughter of the laird of Littledean, and had a son who was of
imbecile mind.

At Sir Hugh~ez_rsquo~s death his
grand-nephew, the grandson of his brother, the Rev. William Wallace,
minister of Falford, became second baronet. This gentleman, Sir Thomas
Wallace, was lord-justice clerk. He had two sons and four daughters. The
elder son, Sir William, third baronet, leaving an only daughter, was
succeeded by his brother, Sir Thomas, fourth baronet, who married
Rachel, daughter of Sir Hew Wallace of Wolmet. His eldest son, Sir
Thomas, fifth baronet, married Eleanor, daughter of Colonel Agnew, of
Loch Ryan, and with one son, a captain in the guards, who predeceased
him without issue, had an only daughter, Frances Anne Wallace. This lady
became the heiress of Craigie, and married John Dunlop, Esq. of Dunlop.
She is celebrated as the friend of Burns.. She had five sons and five
daughters. The eldest son, Sir John Dunlop, succeeded his maternal
grandfather as sixth baronet, and assumed the name of Wallace after his
patronymic. The second son, Andrew, inherited Dunlop, and was a
brigadier-general in the army. The third son, Lieutenant-general James
Dunlop, was father of Sir John Dunlop of Dunlop, who was created a
baronet in 1838. Sir Thomas Dunlop Wallace died in 1835. By his first
wife, Eglinton, daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, baronet,
sister of the fourth duchess of Gordon, he had a son, Sir John Alexander
Dunlop Agnew Wallace, seventh baronet. Sir John, born in 1775, entered
the army in 1787, and served with distinction in India, and was present
in three general actions before he was 15 years of age. He afterwards
served under sir Ralph Abercromby in Egypt, and subsequently commanded
the Connaught rangers in the Peninsula. For his services at Busaco,
Fuentes d~ez_rsquo~Onore, and Salamanca, he received a medal and two clasps. He
was appointed colonel of the 88th regiment in 1831, and became a
lieutenant-general in 1837, and a general in 1854. He served in the army
on full pay for seventy years. He married, June 23, 1829, Janet,
daughter of William Rodger, Esq., and had five sons and one daughter. He
died Feb. 10, 1857.

His eldest son, Sir
William Thomas Francis Agnew Wallace, born May 27, 1830,
lieutenant-colonel grenadier guards, succeeded as eighth baronet. His
brother, Robert Agnew, born in 1834, married the eldest daughter of John
Bell, Esq. of Enterkine, Ayrshire.

_____

From the Riccarton family
also descended the Wallace of Kelly, Renfrewshire.

Of this latter family
Robert Wallace, Esq. of Kelly, was the most distinguished. He was the
son of John Wallace, Esq. of Cessnock, Ayrshire, a West India merchant
in Glasgow, who, in 1792, purchased the estate of Kelly, having
previously sold Cessnock. Robert became a partner of the extensive West
India firm of Wallace, Hunter, and Co., Greenock, and in 1805 he
succeeded his father in the estate of Kelly. In 1833 he was elected M.P.
for Greenock, being the first member for that town in the reformed
parliament, and for four successive elections he was returned for the
same place free of expense. After thirteen years~ez_rsquo~ faithful and laborious
service in the House of Commons, he quitted parliament in 1845. From the
outset he exerted himself in attempting to put an end to the monopoly of
the ministers of the crown, who had till then reserved to themselves the
privilege of introducing public measures into parliament. He was among
the first to attack the errors in our Scotch judicial system, and the
first to urge the reform of post-office abuses, and it was while doing
so that Mr. Rowland Hill stepped in with his scheme of penny postage.
That gentleman frankly admitted that it was Mr. Wallace~ez_rsquo~s exposures that
led him to take up the subject at all; and that it was his indomitable
and persevering energy in and out of parliament which obtained the
inestimable measure of penny postage to the country. Mr. Hill wrote; ~ez_ldquo~By
four years of incessant attacks Mr. Wallace destroyed the prestige once
enjoyed by the post-office, and exposed it to the wholesome influence of
public opinion.~ez_rdquo~

Mr. Wallace~ez_rsquo~s great
services to the country, in connection with post-office reform, were
universally appreciated. He received the freedom of the city of Glasgow,
of Aberdeen, of Paisley, Perth, Dingwall, Inverness and Dornoch. He was
presented with an address by the inhabitants of Kilmarnock, and
beautifully written communication from the postmaster-general of France.
His quitting parliament in 1845 was the result of certain reverses of
fortune when his political and personal friends came forward to his
assistance. A public testimonial realized between three and four
thousand pounds, which sum was invested in the purchase of an annuity of
about £500 a-year. Mr. Wallace died 31st March 1855, aged 82. He used to
boast of his descent from Sir William Wallace, a name which, he said, he
was proud of, and which he hoped he had never done anything to sully.
His brother, Sir James Maxwell Wallace, K.H., a Waterloo officer,
attained the rank of lieutenant-general in the army in 1855.

Sir William Wallace had
no legitimate issue, but is said to have left a natural daughter, who,
according to tradition, married Sir William Baillie of Stoprig, ~ez_ldquo~a
squire of the Baliol blood,~ez_rdquo~ as he is called by Blair, progenitor of the
Baillies of Lamington, an estate which previously belonged to a family
of the name of Braidfoot.

_____

The Wallaces of Cairnhill,
an Ayrshire family, possessed that estate for more than two centuries.
About the beginning of the 18th century, Thomas Wallace, father of John
Wallace of Cessnock, above mentioned, acquired the lands of Cairnhill,
and died in April 1748. His elder son, William Wallace, advocate, who
died at Glasgow 16th November 1763, was the author of a song called
~ez_lsquo~Strephon and Lydia.~ez_rsquo~ He was cousin of Wallace of Kelly.

Another William Wallace,
advocate, the son of Robert Wallace of Holmston, Ayrshire, writer to the
signet, was in December 1752 appointed professor of universal history in
the university of Edinburgh. He was afterwards professor of Scots law,
one of the assessors of the city, and sheriff-depute of Ayrshire, and
died 28th November 1786.

WALLACE, SIR WILLIAM, the heroic defender of the liberties and
independence of Scotland, was the second son of Sir Malcolm Wallace,
knight of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, Renfrewshire, and his wife, the
daughter of Sir Raynauld Crawford, sheriff of Ayr. His lineage is given
above. He was born, it is conjectured, about the middle of the reign of
Alexander III., or about 1276. His early years are said to have been
passed under the superintendence of his uncle, a wealthy ecclesiastic,
at Dunipace, in Stirlingshire, from whom he received the first rudiments
of his education, and who was careful to instill into his youthful
breast the strongest sentiments of patriotism and independence. After
the subversion of the liberties of his country by Edward I. of England,
he was sent to the seminary attached to the cathedral of Dundee, where
he contracted a friendship with John Blair, a Benedictine monk, who
afterwards became his chaplain. Being an eye-witness of most of the
actions of Wallace, Blair, with the assistance of Thomas Gray, parson of
Libberton, composed a history of them in Latin, and from that work, only
a few fragments of which have been preserved, was derived much of the
information contained in the celebrated poem of Blind Harry the
Minstrel, where most of Wallace~ez_rsquo~s achievements have been commemorated.

The subjugation of his
native country by the English, and the wanton outrages committed by the
soldiery who were left to garrison the various castles and principal
towns, roused Wallace~ez_rsquo~s indignation, and he formed an association among
his felloe-students, for the purpose of defending themselves and
punishing the aggressions of the intruders, whenever opportunities
offered. Having been publicly insulted by a youth named Selby, the son
of the governor of Dundee, he drew his dagger and struck him dead on the
spot, and though immediately surrounded by the friends of the deceased,
he luckily effected his escape, after killing two or three other
Englishmen who attempted to intercept his flight. For this deed he was
proclaimed a traitor, outlawed, and forced for some time to lurk among
the woods and mountain fastnesses of the country. His extraordinary
personal strength, undaunted courage, enterprising spirit, and
dexterity, as well as his ardent attachment to his native country, with
his inextinguishable hatred of its oppressors, rendered him peculiarly
fitted to be the leader of a band of patriots burning to avenge the
wrongs of their suffering father-land; and he soon attracted to his side
a number of broken and desperate men, who, weary of the English yoke,
resolved to join their fortunes with one who had so opportunely stood
forth as the assertor of the national independence. For a long time they
seem to have lived chiefly by plunder and the chase, attacking, whenever
occasion offered, the convoys and foraging parties of the English, and
retreating, when pursued, to the woods and secret recesses of the
country.

At this period, Wallace,
under various disguises, was in the habit of visiting the garrisoned
towns, venturing boldly into the market-places, to ascertain the
strength and condition of the enemy, on which occasions he had various
personal encounters with English soldiers, frequently escaping with
difficulty from their superiority of numbers. His exploits gradually
brought a great accession to his partisans; and after the battle of
Dunbar in 1296, in which the Scots were defeated with great slaughter,
Wallace became conspicuously known, both to friend and foe, as the
formidable commander of a little but increasing army of patriots, who
were devotedly attached to their chief, and to the sacred cause of
national liberty.

Among the first whom the
fame of his successes brought to his standard were Sir Andrew Moray of
Bothwell, Sir William Douglas, lord of Douglasdale, designated the
Hardy, Sir Robert Boyd, Alexander Scrimgeour, Roger Kilpatrick,
Alexander Auchinleck, Walter Newbigging, Hugh Dundas, Sir David Barclay,
and Adam Curry; also, Sir John the Graham, who became his bosom friend
and confidential companion. In the various reencounters which Wallace
and his followers had with the English in different parts of the
country, particularly in Ayrshire, Clydesdale, and the Lennox, he was
uniformly victorious, while the lord of Douglas was no less successful
in recovering the castles of Durrisdeer and Sanquhar from the enemy.

Sir William de Hazelrig,
or Heslope, the English sheriff of Lanark, having caused Wallace~ez_rsquo~s
sweetheart, the heiress of Lamington, to be put to death, Wallace, with
thirty of his followers, came to Lanark at midnight, burst into
Hazelrig~ez_rsquo~s apartment, and took signal vengeance on him for his villany.
The town~ez_rsquo~s people aiding Wallace~ez_rsquo~s party, the English garrison was
driven with much slaughter from the town, and the great numbers that now
flocked to his banners enabled him, with a formidable force, to defeat a
considerable body of the English, in a regular engagement in the
neighbourhood of Biggar. In revenge for the base murder of his uncle,
Sir Raynauld Crawford, and others of the Scots gentry, by the governor
of Ayr, who had invited them to a friendly conference in that town,
Wallace, with fifty of his confederates, having hastened to the spot,
surrounded ~ez_ldquo~the Barns of yr,~ez_rdquo~ where the English to the number of 500
were cantoned, set them on fire, and either killed or forced back to
perish in the flames all who attempted to escape. After taking Glasgow,
and expelling Bishop Bek, an English ecclesiastic, from the recovered
city, by a rapid march upon Scone in May 1297, he surprised Ormsby the
English justiciary, dispersed his force, and took a rich booty, but
Ormsby escaped by flight into England.

Wallace now passed into
the Western Highlands, and his progress was marked by victory wherever
he appeared. At this time he was joined by a number of the nobility,
among whom were the Steward of Scotland, with his brother, Sir John
Stewart of Bonkil, Alexander de Lindesay, Sir Richard Lundin, and Robert
Wiseheart, bishop of Glasgow. Even the young Robert de Bruce, grandson
of the Competitor, deceiving the vigilance of the English, renounced the
allegiance he had sworn to Edward, embraced the cause of freedom, and
drew his sword with Wallace.

The intelligence of these
events reached Edward while engaged in preparations for an expedition to
Flanders, and he dispatched orders to the earl of Surrey to adopt
immediate measures for the suppression of the insurrection. A force of
40,000 foot and 300 horse was sent into Scotland, under the command of
Surrey~ez_rsquo~s nephew, Sir Henry Percy, and Sir Robert Clifford, and July 9,
1297, they came up with the Scots army advantageously posted on a hill
near the town of Irvine. Dissensions had, however, broken out among the
leaders of the Scots; the feudal barons, from paltry feelings of pride
and jealousy, scorned to be commanded by one whom they deemed so
inferior to them in rank as Wallace, and, in the midst of their
discussions, Sir Richard Lundin deserted with his followers to the
enemy. His example was in part quickly imitated by Bruce, the Steward,
and his brother, Lindesay, and Douglas, who by means of Wiseheart,
bishop of Glasgow, entered into negotiations with Percy, which ended in
their submission to Edward. Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, and Sir John
the Graham, were the only men of rank who remained with Wallace, and
with their and his own adherents he retired indignantly to the north.
Believing that they had put an end to the revolt, Percy and Clifford
withdrew their troops and returned to England; but Wallace and Moray,
dividing their forces, carried on their operations against the English
with so much vigour, that in a short time all the strongholds north of
the Forth, except the castle of Dundee, were retaken from the English.
Wallace had just laid siege to that fortress, when he was apprised of
the advance of an English army under William de Warenne, earl of Surrey,
and Cressingham the treasurer. Relinquishing the siege of the castle of
Dundee, to be continued by the townsmen themselves, by a forced march he
hastened to oppose the progress of the enemy, and when the English army
came on to cross the Forth by Stirling bridge, they beheld the intrepid
defenders of Scottish freedom posted on a rising ground, near the Abbey
of Cambuskenneth, prepared and eager to dispute their passage. The
Scottish army consisted of 40,000 foot and 180 cavalry, while that of
the English amounted to 50,000 foot and 1,000 heavy-armed horse. Warenne
at first had recourse to the arts of negotiation, but Wallace tauntingly
sent him back a message that they came not there to negotiate but to
fight, and to show them that Scotland was free. The English, under
Cressingham, advanced to cross the river, and when nearly one-half had
passed the bridge, they were attacked by the Scots with an impetuosity
which they could not withstand, and after a terrific slaughter, Wallace
gained a complete victory. Those on the other side of the river, seeing
the day irretrievably lost, burnt their tents, abandoned their baggage
and standards, and hastened back in disorderly flight to Berwick, wither
their commander, Warenne, had found his way, but Cressingham was left
among the slain. This memorable battle, fought September 11, 1297, was
followed by the surrender of the castles of Dumbarton and Dundee, and
the expulsion of the English from the kingdom.

Soon after, at a meeting
of the Scottish nobles, held in the Forest-Kirk, Selkirkshire, Wallace
was elected regent of Scotland in name of John Baliol, then a captive in
England. The late wars and the neglect of agriculture, caused by the
disorganized state of the country, having spread famine and pestilence
over the kingdom, Wallace resolved on an expedition into England. With a
large force he proceeded as far as Newcastle, and after ravaging the
northern counties with fire and sword, sparing neither age nor sex, he
returned with a large and valuable booty to Scotland. Edward in the
meantime hastened from Flanders, and as soon as he had completed his
preparations for a new invasion of the country, he entered Scotland at
the head of a formidable army of nearly 100,000 foot and 8,000 horsemen.
Wallace, unable to cope with such a force, retired before him as he
advanced, wasting the country in his route, and removing the people with
their cattle and provisions along with him. The English troops, in
consequence, soon began to feel all the effects of want, and Edward was
under the necessity of ordering an inglorious retreat. At this critical
juncture, when the military skill of Wallace seemed abut to be crowned
with complete success, his plans were rendered abortive by the treachery
of two Scottish nobles, Patrick, earl of Dunbar, and Umfraville, earl of
Angus, who found means to communicate to the bishop of Durham the
position of the Scottish army, with Wallace~ez_rsquo~s intention to surprise the
English by a night attack, and afterwards to hand upon their rear, and
harass them in their retreat. Edward instantly ordered his army to
advance, and by a rapid march came in sight of the Scottish forces as
they were taking up their positions for battle at Falkirk. The Scots
army, commanded by Wallace, Sir John Stewart of Bonkil, and Comyn, lord
of Badenoch, did not exceed 30,000 men, and being compelled to fight at
a disadvantage, no sooner were they attacked by the English than Comyn,
with the division under his command, treacherously turned their banners
and marched off the field. The English, in consequence, gained a
complete victory, July 22, 1298. Among the Scots slain were Stewart,
brother to the steward of the kingdom, Macduff, uncle to the earl of
Fife, and the faithful Sir John the Graham, who was sorely lamented by
Wallace. That great man himself, when he saw every hope lost, rallied
the broken remains of his army, and, by a masterly retreat, conducted
them in safety beyond the Forth, by the way of Stirling, which they
burnt, at the same time laying waste all the surrounding districts. Soon
after, the impoverished state of the country compelled Edward, with his
army, to return to England.

Finding that the nobles
were combined against him, and seeing it impossible, in the then
circumstances of the country, to contend singly with the power of
Edward, Wallace resigned the regency, and it is supposed, for this
period of his history is involved in much obscurity, proceeded to
France, in the hope of obtaining assistance from Philip, the French
king. In this, however, he was disappointed, although he is said to have
been held in high favour with that monarch, and to have enhanced his
reputation for personal prowess by his successes against the pirates who
then infested the European seas. In 1303 we find him returned to
Scotland, and pursuing an active and harassing system of predatory
warfare against the English, at the head of a few of his faithful
friends and veteran soldiers.

For the complete
subjugation of the country Edward had, within a few years, led five
successive armies across the borders, and after several memorable
defeats sustained by the English, he at last succeeded in subduing for
the time the spirit of the Scottish people. Most of the nobles now
submitted to him, and even the governors of the kingdom, Comyn and
Bruce, entered into a stipulation for the preservation of their lives,
liberties, and lands. From the capitulation agreed to on this occasion,
Edward specially excepted certain persons, whom he reserved for various
degrees of punishment. But to the heroic and still unconquered Wallace
he would offer no terms but those of fall and unconditional surrender;
and, besides setting a reward of 300 merks on his head. He issued strict
orders to his captains and governors in Scotland, to use every endeavour
to secure him, and send him in chains to England. By the treachery of
one of his servants, named Jack Short, Wallace was at length, August 5,
1305, betrayed, according to tradition, into the hands of Sir John
Menteith, a Scottish baron, who captured him at night in bed in the
house of one Ralph Rae, at Robroyston, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow,
for which service he received from the English privy council a grant of
land of the annual value of £100.

Wallace was first
conveyed to Dumbarton castle, of which Menteith was now governor for
Edward, and afterwards carried to London heavily manacled, and guarded
by a powerful escort. On reaching London, he was on Monday, August 23,
1305, conducted to Westminster Hall, accompanied by the grand marshal,
the recorder, the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of the city, and there
formally arraigned of treason. A crown of laurel was in mockery placed
on his head, because, as was alleged, he had aspired to the Scottish
crown. The king~ez_rsquo~s justice, Sir Peter Mallorie, then impeached him as a
traitor to Edward, and as having burned villages, stormed castles, and
slain many subjects of England. ~ez_ldquo~To Edward,~ez_rdquo~ said Wallace, ~ez_ldquo~I cannot be
a traitor, for I owe him no allegiance. He is not my sovereign; he never
received my homage; and whilst life is in this persecuted body, he never
shall receive it. To the other points whereof I am accused, I freely
confess them all. As governor of my country, I have been an enemy to its
enemies; I have slain the English; I have mortally opposed the English
king; I have stormed and taken the towns and castles which he unjustly
claimed as his own. If I, or any soldiers, have plundered or done injury
to the houses or to the ministers of religion, I repent me of my sin;
but it is not of Edward of England that I shall ask pardon.~ez_rdquo~ In
accordance with the predetermined resolution of Edward, he was found
guilty, and condemned to death, and the sentence was executed the same
day, with every refinement of cruelty. He was dragged at the tails of
horses through the streets of London to a gallows erected at the Elms in
Smithfield, where, after being hanged a short time, he was taken down
yet breathing, and his bowels torn out and burned. His head was then
struck off, and his body divided into quarters. His head was placed on a
pole on London Bridge, and his right arm above the bridge at Newcastle;
his left arm was sent to Berwick, his right foot and limb to Perth, and
his left quarter to Aberdeen. He bore his fate with a magnanimity that
secured the admiration even of his enemies, and his name will be held in
everlasting honour by the true-hearted friends of freedom in every age
and country. At the time of his execution it is conjectured that he was
not above thirty-five years of age.

WALLACE, ROBERT, D.D., an eminent divine and statistical writer,
was the only son of Matthew Wallace, minister of the parish of
Kincardine, Perthshire, where he was born, January 7, 1697. He was
educated at the grammar-school of Stirling and the university of
Edinburgh. From his proficiency in mathematics, he was, in 1720, chosen
assistant to Dr. Gregory, during his illness. Qualifying himself for the
ministry, he was, in 1722, licensed to preach by the presbytery of
Dunblane, and, in August 1723, was presented by the marquis of Annandale
to the church and parish of Moffat.

In 1729 Dr. Wallace was
elected moderator of the synod of Dumfries. A sermon which he preached
before that body in the following October having been published, was
shown to Queen Caroline, who recommended him to the earl of Islay, then
chief manager of the affairs of Scotland. Wallace was, in consequence,
in 1733, appointed one of the ministers of the Greyfriars~ez_rsquo~ church,
Edinburgh. Three years afterwards, however, he forfeited the favour of
Government, by refusing to read from his pulpit the act relative to the
Porteous riot, but on the overthrow of the Walpole administration in
1742, he was intrusted by their successors in the ministry with the
conduct of ecclesiastical affairs, so far as related to the crown
presentations in Scotland, and for four years seems to have managed this
delicate duty in such a way as to give satisfaction to all parties
concerned. He took a principal share in the establishment of the
Scottish Ministers~ez_rsquo~ Widows~ez_rsquo~ Fund, the idea of which was originally
suggested by Mr. Mathieson, a minister of the High Church of Edinburgh.
The plan, however, was chiefly matured by the exertions of Dr. Wallace
and Dr. Webster. Dr. Wallace was moderator of the General Assembly in
1743, which sanctioned the scheme; and, in the ensuing November, he was
commissioned, along with Mr. George Wishart, minister of the Tron
church, to proceed to London to watch the proceedings in parliament
regarding it. To his exertions, indeed, it was mainly owing that the
sanction of the legislature was procured for this important and
beneficial measure. Among the documents preserved in the office of the
Trustees of the Ministers~ez_rsquo~ Widows~ez_rsquo~ Fund are, ~ez_lsquo~Proposals in Dr. Wallace~ez_rsquo~s
handwriting, for establishing a General Widows~ez_rsquo~ Scheme, supposed to be
written before the Ministers~ez_rsquo~ Widows~ez_rsquo~ Fund was projected,~ez_rsquo~ and ~ez_lsquo~Parcel
of Original Calculations, previous to the first act of Parliament on the
Ministers~ez_rsquo~ Widows~ez_rsquo~ Fund, holograph of Dr. Wallace.~ez_rsquo~ His portrait,
presented by one of his relatives, graces the hall of the trustees,
being placed opposite to that of Dr. Webster.

In 1744 Dr. Wallace was
appointed one of the royal chaplains for Scotland. In 1753 he published
his celebrated ~ez_lsquo~Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind, in Ancient and
Modern Times,~ez_rsquo~ the original sketch of which he had previously read to
the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. To the work were appended some
remarks on Mr. Hume~ez_rsquo~s Political Discourse of the Populousness of Ancient
Nations. The work is remarkable, not only for the mass of curious
statistical information which it contains, but for the many ingenious
speculations of the author on the subject of population, to one of which
the peculiar theories of Mr. Malthus owed their origin. It was
translated into French, under the inspection of Montesquien; and a new
edition appeared in 1809, with a Life of the author. He died July 19,
1771. ~ez_ndash~ His works are:

A Sermon preached in the High Church of Edinburgh, Monday, January 6,
1746, upon occasion of the Anniversary Meeting of the Society in
Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge.
A Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind in Ancient and Modern Times;
with an Appendix, containing additional Observations on the same
Subject, and some Remarks on Mr. Hume~ez_rsquo~s Political Discourse of the
Populousness of Ancient Nations. Edin. 1753, 8vo. (Anon.) 2d edit. Edin.
1809, 8vo.
Characteristics of the Present State of Great Britain. London, 1758,
8vo.
Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature, and Providence. 1761.
He left behind him some manuscript specimens of his mathematical
labours; and an Essay on Taste, which was prepared for the press by his
son, Mr. George Wallace, advocate, but never published.
The latter was the author of a work on the ~ez_lsquo~Nature and Descent of
Ancient Peerages, connected with the State of Scotland,[ 1783; and of ~ez_lsquo~A
System of the Principles of the Law of Scotland,~ez_rsquo~ 1760. He wrote also a
poem entitled ~ez_lsquo~Prospects from Hills in Fife.~ez_rsquo~ Published at Edinburgh in
1800.

WALLACE, WILLIAM, an eminent mathematician, the son of a
leather-manufacturer and shoemaker in Dysart, Fifeshire, and the eldest
of a numerous family, was born in that burgh, 23d September 1768. His
progenitors had been settled, for some generations, at the village of
Kilconquhar, in the same county. His grandfather inherited a small
property, the greater part of which he lost through mismanagement. He
received the first rudiments of his education from an aged widow in his
native town, who, besides keeping a school for children, had a shop for
the retail of small wares. About the age of seven he was sent to a
school of a higher class, where he made considerable proficiency in
arithmetic, a knowledge of which he had previously obtained from his
father. About the age of ten he was withdrawn from school, having
learned only to read, write, and count, for the latter of which he had a
natural liking.

In 1784 he was sent, in
his sixteenth year, to Edinburgh, to learn the trade of a bookbinder,
and during his apprenticeship he devoted all his leisure hours to
reading. His father~ez_rsquo~s business, which had been at one time considerable,
was ruined by the breaking out of the American war, and he had removed
with his family to Edinburgh, and under his parents~ez_rsquo~ roof young Wallace
had the advantage of their encouragement and moral superintendence. For
the study of mathematics, to which he devoted himself with great ardour
and enthusiasm, he had unusual facilities. Besides taking every
opportunity of obtaining a knowledge of the contents of those scientific
books which passed through his hands, he was enabled to acquire a few
mathematical books of his own, and it was his constant practice to read
during his meals as well as on his way to and from the workshop. By this
assiduous application, before he reached the age of twenty, he had made
himself master of Cunn~ez_rsquo~s Euclid, Ronayne~ez_rsquo~s Algebra, Wright~ez_rsquo~s
Trigonometry, Wilson~ez_rsquo~s Navigation, Emerson~ez_rsquo~s Fluxions, Robertson~ez_rsquo~s
Translation of La Hire~ez_rsquo~s Conic Sections, and Keill~ez_rsquo~s Astronomy.

On the expiry of his
apprenticeship, an acquaintance of his, a carpenter by occupation, who
was employed by the celebrated Dr. John Robison, the professor of
natural philosophy in Edinburgh university, as an assistant in his class
experiments, offered to introduce him to the professor, which he did by
letter. Dr. Robison received him with great kindness, and after
examining him, was much struck with his proficiency in mathematics. He
gave him an invitation to attend his lectures gratuitously, and by
encroaching with his work upon the hours of sleep, he was enabled to be
present regularly at the class. Dr. Robison also introduced him to his
colleague, Mr. Playfair, the professor of mathematics, who likewise
offered him admission to h is lectures. From inability, however, to
attend two classes in one day, he was under the necessity of declining
this most desirable offer. Mr. Playfair ever after took a warm interest
in his welfare, advised him with respect to his course of reading, and
supplied him with books from his own library.

With the view of having
more time at his own disposal then his occupation allowed, he was
induced to accept the situation of warehouseman in a printing office. At
this time Dr. Robison paid him a visit, and proposed to him to give
private lessons in geometry to one of his pupils, a proposal which he
eagerly availed himself of. He began the study of Latin, in which he was
aided by a student, to whom he gave, in return, instruction in
mathematics. As an instance of his manner of turning time and
opportunity to account, it may be mentioned, that while engaged in the
printing office, in the monotonous duty of collecting the successive
sheets of a work from a series of heaps arranged around a circuit of
tables, he fixed up upon the wall a Latin vocabulary, from which he
committed to memory a certain number of works every time he passed it in
making his round.

He next became shopman to
one of the principal booksellers in Edinburgh, and he now found leisure
both to pursue his favourite studies and to increase his stock of
knowledge by general reading. Besides giving private lessons in
mathematics in the evening, he took lessons in French, and thus obtained
an acquaintance with the works of the continental mathematicians.

In 1793, while in his
twenty-fifth year, he relinquished his shop employment, and began to
support himself as a teacher of mathematics privately. He subsequently
attended a course of lectures on mathematics in the university of
Edinburgh, and also one on chemistry.

In 1794, on the
recommendation of Professor Playfair, Mr. Wallace was appointed
assistant teacher of mathematics in the academy of Perth. He now
married, and began to write original mathematical papers for the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, one of which, presented in 1796, was entitled
~ez_lsquo~Geometrical Porisms, with Examples of their Applications to the
Solution of Problems.~ez_rsquo~ He continued the article ~ez_lsquo~Porism~ez_rsquo~ and various
other papers to the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He was
also a contributor to Leybourne~ez_rsquo~s Repository, the Gentleman~ez_rsquo~s
Mathematical Companion, and other scientific publications in England,
and so widely extended was his reputation as a mathematician of the
highest order, that, in 1803, he received a letter, under a feigned
name, intimating to him that an instructor in mathematics was wanted for
the Royal Military College, then established at Great Marlow,
Buckinghamshire, and recommending him to become a candidate for the
office. By the advice of his friend, Professor Playfair, he proceeded to
Great Marlow, and after an examination, was declared the successful
candidate over several competitors. This appointment he held for upwards
of sixteen years, first at Great Marlow, and afterwards at Sandhurst,
Berkshire, to which place the military college was removed. In 1818 the
directors of the college resolved that a half-yearly course of lectures
on practical astronomy should be given to the students, and Mr. Wallace
was appointed lecturer. For the purpose of instructing them in the
manner of making celestial observations, a small observatory was, under
his superintendence, erected, and furnished with the necessary
instruments.

In 1819, on the death of
Professor Playfair, then professor of natural philosophy in the
university of Edinburgh, Mr., afterwards Sir John Leslie succeeded him
in that chair, and Mr. Wallace became a candidate for the chair of
mathematics, vacated by the latter. After a very keen competition, he
was elected by a large majority, and thereby obtained the great object
of his ambition, a professorship in a Scottish university.

In 1838, on account of
ill health, he was compelled to resign his chair, having been unable to
perform his duties in person during the three previous sessions. On his
resignation the degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by the
senatus academicus, and at the same time he received a pension from the
government, in consideration, as the warrant stated, of his attainments
in science and literature, and his valuable services at the Royal
Military College and the university.

When the fourth edition
of the Encyclopedia Britannica was commenced, Dr. Wallace undertook the
revision of all the mathematical papers he had contributed to the
previous edition, as well as some of those which had been written by Dr.
Robison; and several of the more important treatises, particularly on
algebra, conic sections, and fluxions, were remodelled and almost
entirely rewritten.

After five years of
private life, Professor Wallace died at Edinburgh, 28th April, 1843, in
his 75th year. He was mainly instrumental in the erection of the
Observatory on the Calton Hill of that city, and he was the means of
procuring a monument to be erected in Edinburgh to Napier, the
celebrated inventor of the logarithms. He was one of the original
nonresident members of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, and
from a memoir of him which appeared in the quarterly fasciculus of that
body, published February 9, 1844, the materials for this notice have
chiefly been derived. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, a corresponding member of the Institution of civil Engineers,
and an honorary member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. A few
weeks before his death he was elected an honorary member of the Royal
Irish Academy. Having a turn for mechanics, he invented an instrument
called the Eidograph, from two Greek words, signifying ~ez_ldquo~a form,~ez_rdquo~ and ~ez_ldquo~to
draw,~ez_rdquo~ a description of which he presented to the Royal Society of
Edinburgh. In copying plans or other drawings it answers the same
purpose as the common Pantograph, but is greatly superior to it, both in
the extent of its application and the accuracy of its performance. He
was also the inventor of the Chorograph, an instrument for describing on
paper any triangle having one side and all its angles given, and also
for constructing two similar triangles, on two given straight lines,
having the angles given.

He does not seem to have
published any separate work but the one first mentioned below. The
subsequent seven papers are among those which he wrote for the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, and published in their ~ez_lsquo~Transactions.~ez_rsquo~

A New Book of Interest, containing Aliquot Tables, truly proportioned by
any given rate. London, 1794, 8vo.
Geometrical Porisms, with Examples of their Applications to the Solution
of Problems. 1796.
Development of a certain Algebraic Formula. 1805.
A new method of expressing the Co-efficients in the Development of the
Formula that represents the mutual perturbation of two Planets; with an
Appendix, giving a quickly converging series for the rectification of an
Ellipse.
New Series for the Quadrature of the Conic Sections, and the Computation
of Logarithms. 1808.
Investigation of Formulae for finding the Logarithms of Trigonometrical
Quantities from one another. 1823.
Account of the Invention of the Pantograph; and a Description of the
Eidograph. 1831.
Solution of a Functional Equation, with its application to the
Parallelogram of Forces and the Curve of Equilibrium. 1839. Published in
the 14th volume of the Society~ez_rsquo~s Transactions.
A paper, entitled ~ez_lsquo~Two Elementary Solutions of Kepler~ez_rsquo~s Problem by the
Angular Calculus,~ez_rsquo~ was contributed by him to the ~ez_lsquo~Transactions~ez_rsquo~ of the
Royal Astronomical Society in 1836.
To the ~ez_lsquo~Transactions~ez_rsquo~ of the Cambridge Philosophical Society he
contributed a paper, entitled ~ez_lsquo~Geometrical Theorems and Formulae,
particularly applicable to some Geodetical Problems.~ez_rsquo~
In 1838 he composed a work on the same subject, which he dedicated to
his friend, Colonel Colby.

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